Sustainable Bioenergy, Farms, and Forests - July 22, 2016 | Newsletter

Autos Receive Positive Grade on Fuel Efficiency Standards, Even While Fuel Efficiency Drops

On July 18, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) stated that automotive manufacturers are on track to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger vehicles through 2025. According to NHTSA, “automotive manufacturers are innovating and bringing new technology to market at a rapid pace, and that they will be able to meet the MY 2022 – 2025 standards … relying primarily on advanced gasoline vehicles.”

However, instead of meeting the originally calculated target of 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) they will instead meet a lower target of 50 to 52.6 mpg. This is because the mpg targets outlined by CAFE are adaptive – meaning that they are based on the fuel efficiency of the actual vehicle fleet. Low oil prices have increased the number of larger, less fuel efficient vehicles on the road, reducing the overall fuel efficiency of the passenger fleet. The original 54.5 mpg CAFE standards would have resulted in an estimated savings of $1.7 trillion in gasoline costs to U.S. consumers, as well as a reduction of GHG emissions by 6 billion tons over the lifetime of these vehicles.

Read More

Event Recap:

Building a Billion-Ton Bioeconomy

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing assessing the ability of the United States to sustainably produce 1 billion tons of renewable non-food biomass every year. This could potentially displace more than 30 percent of the country's petroleum consumption. The briefing focused on key findings from volume 1 of the 2016 Billion-Ton Update, which examines the technical feasibility of a billion-ton annual biomass supply chain by 2040. The 2016 report, builds and expands on previous Billion-Ton studies, released in 2005 and 2011 by the Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The Administration’s ‘Billion-Ton Bioeconomy Vision,’ which aims to remove barriers to the sustainable scale-up of U.S. biomass resources while maximizing beneficial economic, social, environmental and public health outcomes, was also discussed.

Check the briefing page for a video recording of the event as well as downloadable speaker slides.

Headlines

1. 40 Senators Seek Higher Biodiesel Mandate

2. Biorefinery Tech Market to Jump to $714.6 Billion In 2021

3. When it Comes to Ethanol, Many U.S. Drivers Don’t Really Care

4. Wal-Mart, America's Largest Grocer, Is Now Selling Ugly Fruit And Vegetables

5. Ford Motor Co. to Use Jose Cuervo’s Agave Waste for Bioplastic

To Contact the Editor: Jessie Stolark at [email protected]

Please distribute Sustainable Bioenergy, Farms, and Forests to your colleagues. Reproduction of this newsletter is permitted provided that the Environmental and Energy Study Institute is properly acknowledged as the source. Past issues are available here. Free email subscriptions are available here.

Do you like receiving this newsletter? If so, please consider taking 2 minutes to tell us why SBFF is useful to you! Your review of EESI's services on GreatNonprofits will help us keep bringing you more of what you like. EESI has been named a “Top-Rated Nonprofit” three years in a row, and with your help we want to make it four! Click here to Review EESI.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 by a bipartisan Congressional caucus dedicated to finding innovative environmental and energy solutions. EESI’s work, including this free newsletter, is made possible by financial support from people like you. Please help us continue to make it available by making a secure, online donation today or mailing a check to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute at 1112 16th St NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036. You can also learn more about why you should give to EESI for clean energy. If you have any questions, please contact Susan Williams by email at swilliams [at] eesi.org or by phone at 202-662-1887. Thank you for your support!